Large multi-file web documents

[Thomas G. Tyler]

Please bear with me - my questions for the list require a little 
background.

In the past nine months I have built and maintained a web page of 
reference material relating to the Federal Depository Document Program
which is found at:

	http://www.du.edu/~ttyler/bdldhome.htm

Under the collective title of BDLD: Basic Depository Library Documents 
are now more than 20 individual "titles".  As my library (the Univ.
of Denver) does not run its own web server, my pages are served from
the University's VAX cluster, where my "pages" translate into more than
900 HTML files occupying more than 20 megabytes of space.  

File creation is done entirely from DOS / Windows 3.1 environment; the 
large database-like titles (List of Classes, Union Lists, Additions & 
Changes, Depository Library Directory, Inactive List, etc.) are produced 
with a suite of programs written in PowerBasic.

In March I will be giving a paper at the Computer In Libraries '97
meeting on "large document" web pages and I would like to find 
several good (or bad) examples of large multipage web documents produced 
by or for the library community.  Such documents, I assume, will be large 
bibliographies, directories, or manuals that if published
in conventional form would require 200 or more pages.

I'm also interested in any rules-of-thumb web publishers have adopted
for deciding when, for a given document, manual coding (with or without 
software assistance) is not advised and some type of automated coding and 
web page generation is required.

My last question (for now) has to do generally with the creation of web 
documents from databases.  Assuming that in the future I decide to make 
the jump from DOS/Windows 3.1 to UNIX/Windows NT, Perl, cgi etc., what 
may I expect in the way of upside and downside in that environment if my 
objective is to essentially maintain the current "look and feel" of the 
web documents I currently maintain?

I'll be appreciative of any and all comments, direct or to the list.

-- 
Tom Tyler
Associate Director for Budget & Technical Planning
University of Denver Library
Denver, CO  80208

(303)871-3334
(303)871-3446 (fax)

ttyler at du.edu

http://www.du.edu/~ttyler/bdldhome.htm